The 6-foot-1 forward, The Express-Times 2011 Girls Basketball Player of the Year, is third on the team in scoring at 10.1 points per game and leads the Knights in rebounding at 6.7 per contest.

Livermore, who's been coming off the bench, recently won her fourth Northeast Conference Rookie of the Week award with a pair of outstanding performances. She had 17 points and seven rebounds in a 62-47 loss to first place Sacred Heart. She followed with a 23-point, 14-rebound effort in a 74-55 victory over Quinnipiac.

"She's been unbelievable," FDU coach Pete Cinella said. "She's been a tremendous force. She's even a lot better than we thought. We have to figure out how to get her the ball more."

Strictly a post player throughout her high school career, Livermore is making a conscious effort to develop her perimeter game.

"She's been hitting a lot of 3s (3-pointers) in practice," Cinella said. "I think that's the next step -- implementing the 3-point shot into her game. She's only 6-1 and sometimes those 6-5 girls block out the middle."

"I've been working on that a lot in practice," said Livermore, a biology major who hopes to pursue a career in physical therapy. "My shot has really improved. That would surprise a lot of people back home because I never shot 3s in high school. I made maybe two all four years."

Cinella thought long and hard when asked to find a weakness in Livermore's game.

"It took a while to adjust," she said. "It's a longer season than high school. In high school, tryouts start at the end of November. Here, we started the first week of school. It's like a job now. You have to take it more serious. In high school it was fun. I'm having a great time, though. I love the atmosphere."

Livermore played sparingly at the start of the season. Her minutes have increased tremendously since the holidays.

"We have a lot of post players," Cinella said. "We probably didn't play her enough early. Right after Christmas we started playing her about 25-30 minutes a game. She can handle that. She's a well-conditioned athlete."

"I take that (not playing early) as being my own fault," Livermore said. "I wasn't doing what was expected of me and other people were getting the job done. I realized I had to be more consistent. I've been playing with more fire than I was at the start and now I'm getting more minutes."

A strong part of Livermore's game is her ability to make free throws. Her 78.9 percent accuracy from the line (71-for-90) is tops on the team among players who have at least 10 attempts.

"I take pride in shooting foul shots well," Livermore said. "I shoot 50 after every practice. Free throws are important, especially at the end of close games."

Livermore has proven to be cool in the clutch. She calmly sank two free throws with 27 seconds left to tie a game against Central Connecticut State. FDU eventually lost 51-49 on a shot with one second remaining.

"I try not to think about the situation and how much time is left," Livermore said. "That would make me nervous. I just try to be as calm as I can."

"She's shooting 88 percent from the line in the last five minutes of games," Cinella said. "Good players get fouled a lot and she's third on the team in made free throws."

Livermore has high hopes for the remainder of the season. The Knights are 11-13 overall and 6-6 in the conference.

"Hopefully, we'll get a home game for the (conference) playoffs," she said. "It would be great if we could go far and make the NCAA playoffs. That would be a dream. It would be amazing to say I was able to play in the NCAA tournament."